1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a microlithographic projection catadioptric objective, and particularly including an even number of four or more mirrors and an unobscured aperture, and excluding any planar folding mirrors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microlithographic reduction projection catadioptric objectives, such as that shown and described with respect to FIG. 3 of European patent no. EP 0 779 528 A2, are known as variants of pure catoptric objectives. FIG. 3 of the ""528 application shows a system having six mirrors and three lenses. The optical surfaces are generally symmetric to a common axis, and the object plane and the image plane are situated on this same axis upstream and downstream of the objective, respectively. As described in the ""528 application, the system of FIG. 2 has a numerical aperture of only 0.55 and that of FIG. 3 only 0.6. In addition, all but one of the six mirrors shown at FIG. 3 are cut off sections of a bodies of revolution, yielding mounting and adjustment face difficulties. Also, the lenses shown in FIG. 3 serve only as correcting elements having minor effect. The most image forward (or optically closest to the image plane) mirror is concave. It is desired to have an objective with a higher numerical aperture, and which is constructed for easier mounting and adjustment.
A similar objective to that described in the ""528 application (above) is disclosed at U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,035. The objective shown at FIG. 12, for example, has nine mirrors, two lenses and two intermediate images. The object plane and image plane are situated within the envelope of the objective. The objective described in the ""035 application also exhibits a low numerical aperture and offers similar mounting and adjustment difficulties as described above with respect to the ""528 application. In both the ""528 and ""035 applications, the image field is an off-axis ring sector.
An axially symmetric type of catadioptric objective is disclosed in German patent document DE 196 39 586 A (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/263,788). The ""788 application discloses an objective having two opposing concave mirrors, an image field centered at the common axis and a central obscuration of the aperture. It is desired to have an axially objective having an unobscured aperture.
Another type of catadioptric objective for microlithographic reduction projection has only one concave mirror and a folding mirror, as is described at U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,763 and European patent application no. EP 0 869 383 A.
In extending DUV lithography to sub 100-nm feature sizes or linewidths, it is desired to have a projection system with a numerical aperture of 0.65 or larger and more preferably of 0.75 or larger at a wavelength of 157 nm. As optical lithography is extended into the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV), issues surrounding the laser linewidth and material availability could cause substantive delays to the development of lithography tools for the most extreme VUV wavelengths. Therefore, it is desired to investigate optical configurations that minimize the use of available VUV optical materials.
It has long been realized that catadioptric optical systems have several advantages, especially in a step and scan configuration and various organizations have developed, or proposed development, of such systems for wavelengths below 365 nm. One catadioptric system concept relates to a Dyson-type arrangement used in conjunction with a beam splitter to provide ray clearance and unfold the system to provide for parallel scanning (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,537,260, 5,742,436 and 5,805,357). However, these systems have a serious drawback since the size of this beam splitting element becomes quite large as the numerical aperture is increased up to and beyond 0.65 to 0.70, making the procurement of bulk optical material with sufficient quality (in three-dimensions) a high risk endeavor. This problem is exacerbated as wavelengths are driven below 193 nm because the selection of material that can be manufactured to lithographic quality is severely limited.
To circumvent this problem, attempts have focused on the development of systems without beamsplitters. However, this prior art has either failed to achieve an adequately high numerical aperture (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,685,777, 5,323,263, 5,515,207 and 5,815,310), or failed to achieve a fully coaxial configuration, instead relying on the use of folding mirrors to achieve parallel scanning (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,275 and EP 0 816 892) and thereby complicating the alignment and structural dynamics of the system. In addition, these designs generally utilize mtoo any lens elements, greatly increasing the mass of the optical system.
It is desired to develop a compact, coaxial, catadioptric projection system for deep ultraviolet and/or vacuum ultraviolet lithography that uses no beamsplitters or fold mirrors in its optical path.
It is an object of the invention to provide an objective for microlithographic projection reduction having high chromatic correction for typical bandwidths of excimer laser light sources, which permits a high image-side numerical aperture, and which reduces complexity with respect to mounting and adjusting.
In accordance with the above object, a photolithographic reduction projection catadioptric objective is provided including a first optical group having an even number of at least four mirrors, and a second substantially refractive optical group more image forward than the first optical group having a number of lenses. The second optical group provides image reduction. The first optical group provides compensative aberrative correction for the second optical group. The objective forms an image with a numerical aperture of at least substantially 0.65, and preferably greater than 0.70 or still more preferably greater than 0.75.
The first optical group preferably produces a virtual intermediate image. The more image forward mirror is preferably convex, although a concave final mirror may produce the virtual image. In addition, optical surfaces of each mirror of the objective are preferably at least sections of revolution each having a common optical axis, and more preferably optical surfaces of each mirror and each lens of the objective are at least sections of revolution each having this common axis.
The objective preferably has an unobscured system aperture located within the second optical group, and there are preferably no folding mirrors in the objective. The second group preferably more lenses that the number of mirrors in the first group, and more preferably includes at least eight lenses.
The objective also preferably has parallel axes of symmetry of curvatures of each optical element of the first and second optical groups. In addition, preferably no more than two and more preferably no more than one of the optical elements are cut to deviate in a substantially non-rotationally symmetric form.
Also preferably, the objective includes in sequence, in an optical direction from an object side to an image side of the objective, a fist catadioptric sub group for producing a real intermediate image, a second sub group including catoptric components for producing a virtual image, and a third dioptric group for producing a real image. The objective may include in sequence, in an optical direction from the object side to the image side of the objective, a first field lens sub group, a second catadioptric sub group comprising one or more negative lenses and a concave mirror for generating axial chromatic aberration, and a third sub group including an odd number of catoptric components, and a fourth positive lens sub group.
The objective may also include in sequence, in an optical direction from the object side to the image side, a first catadioptric sub group comprising a single mirror and having a negative reduction ratio, a second sub group comprising an odd number of mirrors and having a positive reduction ratio, and a third dioptric lens sub group having a negative reduction ratio. In the latter case, the first catadioptric sub group may include a positive field lens group and a negative lens group next to the single mirror, and the third dioptric lens sub group may include a larger number of positive than negative lenses.
The most image forward mirror of said first optical group is convex. An intermediate image is preferably formed before the two most image forward mirrors of the first optical group.
An image field may be between substantially 5 mmxc3x9720 mm to 8 mmxc3x9730 mm. Each lens of the objective is preferably unobstructive of a beam path of a beam incident at the objective. The objective also preferably includes at least one spherical mirror.
The optical surfaces of each mirror of the objective are preferably at least sections of revolution each having a common optical axis. The first optical group preferably includes four mirrors, and wherein in sequence, from an object side to an image side of the objective, the first and third mirrors are concave and the fourth.mirror is convex.
An aperture plane is preferably located within a sub group of the first optical group for generating catadioptric chromatic aberration and has at least one negative lens and a concave mirror. The first optical group preferably includes a field lens group proximate to and after an object plane which produces object side telecentricity. The objective is preferably doubly telecentric.
All lenses of the objective are preferably located within a cylindrical envelope of a radius of a largest of the lenses of the objective, and all but one mirror of the objective is located within the same envelope.
A virtual image is preferably formed within the first optical group, and more preferably between the second and the third mirror of the first optical group. Each optical element of the first optical group is preferably substantially spherical.
The optical elements of the objective are preferably aligned along a common optical axis of symmetry of curvatures of each optical element of the first and second optical groups. Preferably, a largest distance from the common optical axis of symmetry of any ray of a beam incident upon the objective is not more than 370 mm.
The first mirror of the first optical group is preferably concave, and the first optical group also preferably further includes at least one, and more preferably at least two, concave lens(es) before the first concave mirror.
The second optical group may include several lenses wherein each is a positive lens. A diameter of the beam incident upon each of these multiple lenses is preferably at least half of a diameter of each respective lens.
The third mirror of the mirrors of the first optical group is preferably a substantially spherical mirror. This substantially spherical third mirror is preferably concave. The fourth mirror of the first optical group is preferably convex.
A projection exposure apparatus is also provided including an excimer or EUV light source, an illumination system, a reticle handling, positioning and scanning system, a projection objective according to the above and a wafer handling, positioning and scanning system.